Paz

Dearest family and friends. THERE IS SO MUCH I WANT TO SHARE!! and not enough time .... ahhh SO ill be brief. 

moms dear elder ... GOT IT AND I LOVE IT! i love your poems. and yes. this daughter misses her mother. you brought a tear to my eye. i have the best mom int he whole wide world. just so everyone knows. 

julias announcement.YOU LOOK SOO HAPPY with him. yes i got the announcement and the temple invite and its so bitter sweet. im so happy and you look SO happy like you could easily laugh ad smile with him FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER! thats how it should be,you have such a light and it warms my heart so much. felizidades querida prima. 

cambios.... im staying. im pretty sure im gonna finish my mission here in california. and my companion goes home in 6 weeks- ill be "killing her". never killed anyone before. but supposedly she is extending four weeks after that. so maybe ill be with her for longer... not sure. 

rodrigo. recieved the priesthood. was wonderful! 

hosting dying sisters. all the sisters who are finishing their missions come to our area to pros for their last days. so we have had like 5sisters in and out of our area dn we nave to mke double plans for us to be able to keep them working to teçhe end. but our numbers look GREAT this week. so thanks! 

elvira milagro... SHE IS OUR NEWEST GOLDEN

nightmare and fasting

elder andersen and the closing prayer .

 

she is gold. iour investigator. she said she recieved her answer that it is all true through and email her missionary grandson sent to her. she said that was her sign and her answer. and she came to church with us for the first time yesterday. she is wonderful. i hope one day my email or testimony will tuch ssomeones heart and they will feel thes spirit. 

 

the night before elder andersen came, a very weierd thing happned. at 4 am i woke up to my comp screeming! not like a whimper, not a cry out loud, but a loud strong, geuinely paniced screem!! like a cry for help to escape something, i woke up and found MYSELF screeming too!! she scared me so bad!!! but i was so confused cause i didnt know WHY!!! I LOOKED around frantically loking for the cause of such a horrible reaction. but i saw nothing. abosluely nothing and no one. i pulled myself together a little and started yelling her name. "hermana paiva! HERMANA! HERMANA LOOK AT ME! hermana tranquilate! tranquila!!! " when that didnt work, she kept screeming, i started saying "i love you hermana come back to me. what is happening. i love you look at me" nothing. she was freaking uot. so i bravely jumped from my bed and and into hers and grabbed her in a big hug and tried to wake her up. finially she woke up and calmed down. i said "we are going to pray" and i cried to heaven with all my herat cause i was so scared to death. there was such a bad eary feeling in the room i hated it! i cried to heaven to save us from such a dark feeling. i said "with the power and authority i have as a missionary and representative of the savuior, in the name of jesus christ, clean this room from, any dark or evil spirits" and we cried and prayed together. then she was back. she said she had a reallybad nightmare where an evil spirit was choking her and she felt a lot of pressure on her chest and it wouldnt go away. 

 

family. i have never felt such a horrible feelign in mywhole life. after, we said another prayer. and family, i cannot tell you how much power there is in a simple prayer. it was like a restoration.i icannot explain it but it was like the peace was restored. yes i was still a little shaken but for some reason, what i had in my mind was the workd "paz": it was like the spirit commanded "Paz" (or peace) to my mind. and i felt "restored". but you BET we slept with the lights on after that. i woke up two huors later with a question in my mind "why, if we are fasting to have a spiritual experience for elder andersen, would such a demonic thing happen to us?" 

 

my question was answered as we listned to the gener authorities that were visiting the next morning. Elder Zuarez was telling a story and he made a similar question. he said "why did my father have to die on his mission? when he was serving the lord and doing his will?"

 

ithen he said "the spirit told me, there is no better time." and that too was my answer. fasting gives you spiritual strength. there is no better time to "cast out devils" so to speak, than when you are fasting. i cant imagine how different it would have been if i had that experience with out the spiritual power to do so. 

 

truly inspired. and my testimony of the "opposition in all things" concept has been strengthened as well.

we had an amazingly spiritual "charla" with the general authorites. they taught us on high. and ill share more after the mission but i was truly edified spiritually. 

 

AND they asked me to give the closing prayer. and i was so grateful cause i was so filled with joy and gratitude for the spirit that i personally felt that i could express that in behalf of all the misisonaries and in front of elder andersen. 

 

and i shook his hand after and he looked RIGHT in my eyes and said "thank you. thank youso much". like he was sayig thanjk you for havig the spirit. and i was so happy. 

what a blessig. this was a good week. a wierd but good week 

 

con amor

hermana gonzales